


Once upon a time

by KD writes (KDHeart)



Series: Promptober 2020 [8]
Category: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Fairy Tales, Fluff, Flufftober, Gen, Jessie Bannon/Hadji Singh (background relationship), Kid Fic, No beta we die like mne, Post-Canon, Snow White retellings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26940220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDHeart/pseuds/KD%20writes
Summary: Flufftober day 10: "Once Upon a Time"“Well, there’s more snakes and fewer hot iron shoes, but he’s still Snow White.”
Series: Promptober 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951537
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Once upon a time

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago, I was struck by the idea that Hadji was Snow White (with Jessie as Prince Charming), but I never took it anywhere.   
> Snow White variants are fun! And I wanted to include a reference to Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, but it was already longer than I intended and it's 3am.

Jonny didn’t mind babysitting his niece. She was a delightful bundle of excitement and Jessie and Hadji deserved some time to themselves.

The evening was growing late and he sat in the overstuffed armchair in the library with the little girl perch on the arm, reading her book to him. He wasn’t sure how much the three year old was reading and how much she was reciting the story from memory after how many times she had made her parents read it to her at bedtime. It was a lavishly illustrated edition of Snow White that she got a few months earlier for her birthday and had yet to lose interest in.

When the prince’s servant dropped the coffin and dislodged the piece of apple, she nearly fell off her perch playing out Snow White’s awakening and Jonny had to catch her before she toppled over.

“And then,” the girl picked up the thread as if she didn’t just cause a minor spike of anxiety. “And then, they got married and made the Evil Queen dance in _hot iron shoes_ at the wedding!”

Jonny chuckled at her enthusiasm. She definitely had her mother’s thirst for blood.

She closed the book reverently and gasped in a long breath.

“And they lived happily ever after!” she declaimed.

“That was very good!” he said, offering her a high five.

She slapped his hand with a lot of enthusiasm and very little force, beaming with satisfaction.

“Now you tell me!” she demanded, offering him the book.

“This one?”

She shook her head.

“I like this book. But it can be another story,” she allowed magnanimously.

He nodded, putting on a pensive air. 

“Well, this book could tell your daddy’s story.”

She giggled. “Daddy’s not a princess!”

“No, but that doesn’t change the story,” Jonny said, flipping the book to the beginning. “Well, there’s more snakes and fewer hot iron shoes, but he’s still Snow White.”

She turned her full attention on him and dug her little fingers into the upholstery for better support.

“Okay, then… Once upon a time, there was a prince and his parents loved him very much. But eventually, his father the King fell very ill and died. His brother took over while the prince was still a child and every morning, his mirror would tell him that he was the most powerful in all the land. But he knew in his dark heart that that wouldn’t last for ever, so he had a Hunter take the child and kill him.”

She watched him flip the pages and pointing at all the right pictures. She knew her parents’ history, but wrapped in the magic of the story, it had a different impact and now she was on the edge of her seat, waiting to learn if her survived the Hunter all those years ago.

He flipped the page to the picture of Snow White being spared.

“Of course, the Hunter couldn’t bring himself to kill the Prince, but he couldn’t go back to the Evil Regent and tell him. So he took the child and hid, becoming a humble Peddler. Everyone thought the Prince was dead and eventually, the Prince forgot her was a prince himself.”

“But that’s not how the story goes,” she protested.

“We’re getting to the dwarves next. They were on a quest in place where the Prince and the Peddler were in hiding. They befriended the Prince and, with the Peddler’s assistance, took him far, far away.”

She relaxed her grip on the armchair and leveled him an unimpressed look.

“You’re really bad at this, uncle Jonny.”

“Fine, I won’t tell you about how your Mom kissed the Prince out of a death-like slumber, then,” he threatened.

She made a face. “I see that enough, thanks.”

Jonny chuckled and scooped her into his arms.

“Come on, it’s time for bed. Your parents will be back soon and I don’t want to get in trouble.”

She wrapped her small arms around his neck, tucking the book between them, thus making herself incredibly easy to carry, and the journey to her room unnecessarily uncomfortable. But it wasn’t the first time he was doing this and he was already on top of things by getting her to brush her teeth early.

“You owe me a proper story,” she mumbled.

“I’ll tell you the one where Snow White goes to live with dragons,” he promised, carrying her to her room.

“Why didn’t you start with that one?”

“Because, I wasn’t about to claim I was a dragon, now, was I? Your Dad’s a head taller than me!”

“You mean Mom’s Prince Charming?”

“If I called her a princess, she’d kick my ass!”

The kid started giggling. The book slipped just enough out of place to stab him lightly in the chest.

“Please don’t tell her I said ‘ass’,” he added as they reached her room. It only made the giggles worse and confirm that she was not going to sleep any time soon.

He was going to tell her the Snow White with Dragons story, after all.


End file.
